In many gas wells, inflowing fluid passes through a sand screen which filters out particulates from the inflowing gas. Generally, the flow rate of the inflowing gas is very high such that any sand production can cause substantial erosion of components in a gas well completion. The sand production is controlled with sand screens employed either as stand-alone screens or in combination with a surrounding gravel pack. However, the velocity of the inflowing gas often can exceed an erosion velocity which causes erosion of the sand screen and ultimate failure of the sand screen. One scenario is the split in flow between the inside of the base pipe and annulus. The annular flow has to enter through the last screen joint, or eventually through screen joints sitting before annular packers. If this annular flow enters through a screen or part of a screen, erosion can be the result. Once the sand screen fails, the risk of erosion arises with respect to other elements of the completion. Use of gravel packing may limit the velocity of particulates; however gravel packs are not necessarily uniform along the entire sand screen, resulting in high, erosive flow rates through poorly packed regions.